Atlanta Wins 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship

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Photo credit: Mercedes-Benz Stadium 

Touchdown, Atlanta! The 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Game will be played inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. 

Wednesday, the College Football Playoff (CFP) made the announcement from the Big Ten Conference Office in Illinois. 

Other sites that were bidding for the 2018 championship game included Houston, south Florida and the Bay Area (Santa Clara). The CFP National Championship games for 2019 and 2020 were also announced on Wednesday.   The 2019 game will be played in Santa Clara and the 2020 game will take place in New Orleans. 

The game is expected to have a financial impact of about $300 million dollars for the Atlanta area. On top of that, all eyes will be on Atlanta; more than 33 million people watched the 2015 championship on television, according to the Atlanta Sports Council.

"There's also a social impact," said Dan Corso, the council's executive director. "There's a buzz and an energy that's generated in the city that hosts."

The new Mercedes-Benz Stadium is currently being built in downtown Atlanta. The $1.5 billion stadium is expected to open in 2017. 

In addition to the championship game, Mercedes-Benz Stadium announced in September an agreement to host the SEC Football championship Game in Atlanta through 2026.